23:53 - Sunny PagliaccioNote to self: Do NOT open links on max volume in the middle of a quiet night. Otherwise, not bad. :D

23:52 - ApothecaryFast food workers planning a strike in support of $15/hour wages next month. I'm a tutor in a reading lab at a college and I don't even make that much, a bit of an overestimation of one's importance, don'tcha think?

01. The Ballad Of Leonard And Charles02. Beyond The Pale03. Hammer And Life04. Class Dismissed (A Hate Primer)05. Downfall06. March Of The Sycophants07. Nanking08. Burn, Hollywood, Burn09. Democide10. The Sun Is My Destroyer11. A Perpetual State Of Indifference12. Good Riddance13. Devil's Teeth [bonus]

So Exodus is back, again, with Exhibit B: The Human Condition after a relatively short (for them) layoff. The Bay Area Bashers have returned doing what they do best, wreaking havoc and crushing skulls.

The H&H Guitar tandem (this time, Holt and Heathen's Lee Altus) have concocted some monstrously crushing riffs and shredding leads. Jack Gibson provides some great support on bass, Tom Hunting treats his kit like I treat my monkey (he often misbehaves and I must spank him frequently) and the band's third front man, Rob Dukes froths and spits at the mic with fantastic venom, bile, and power... cementing his place as an equal to the monstrous combat boots of his predecessors.

With the birth of The Big Four, we have all basked among the glory of albums like Master Of Puppets, Reign in Blood, Peace Sells and Among The Living, and also the tier two bands such as Testament, Death Angel, Overkill, Annihilator and yes, Exodus. The only difference though is that The Big Four started to slowly descend from their holy rankings. Have the tier two bands descended down yet? Not even close.

I was very disappointed with Exhibit A. I loved 3 songs on it, but the rest just didnt do anything for me. The latest 2 songs the band have put on their Myspace though, have raised my hopes for Exhibit B a lot! "Hammer And Life" is a great midpaced pounder, with a very kewl 80's metal harmony break, and ''Class Dismissed" is just a total masterclass in epic violence. If the rest of the songs are this good, then it's going to blow Exhibit A away! Very much looking forward to the album now!

The problem I had with Exhibit A is, most of the songs are long, and apart from two exceptions (The title track and ''Children Of A Worthless God'') I found them very unmemorable. The riffs were all interchangeable. ''Class Dismissed'' is a great epic thrasher, which manages to hold my attention for its full 7+ minutes. Something most of the Exhibit A long songs failed to do.

My fav from them was Tempo of the Damned with Souza..which cant be beat..but with Rob Dukes, i say Exhibit A was far better than Shovel Headed Kill Machine..i liked all the song from Exhibit A..after i hear Exhibit B ill get back to ya

This album fucking rocks..."The Sun Is My Destroyer" is 9 mins 30 sec & its their first song with some death vocals..Rob Dukes sings in a lower key during the verses.."Democide" is the slowest song on here & it has the best intros ive ever heard...this album isnt better than Exhibit A though, but its longer & somewat heavier & Dukes doesnt scream as much.....

My prediction that Exhibit B would be a lot better than Exhibit A, has been proven right!

The main reason why I like Exhibit B a lot more, is the album has way more melody, and a lot more of the songs stand out on their own, rather than pretty much all sounding the same, like most of the Exhibit A songs did. The chorus of ''Democide'' might actually be the most melodic metal they've ever done, and it is definitely one of the best songs on the album. The warp speed melody and aggression of "Beyond The Pale", and the monstrous ''Class Dismissed'' are other highlights of the album! Finally, Exodus have done an album with Rob Dukes that is worthy of a place alongside their other classics. Welcome back Exodus!

If you use a pitch shifter to listen to "March Of The Sycophants" in standard tuning, it sounds like something they could have recorded in the 80's! Especially that main riff...that is just classic Exodus, all it needs is Zetro's vocals!

Once again a mediocre album. Somehow all of the studio albums with Dukes on vocals are mediocre whils live they are very good.
This isn't worth more than a 6.5
Anyone saying it is is blinded by somekind of misplaced love for current day boring Exodus.

Once again a mediocre album. Somehow all of the studio albums with Dukes on vocals are mediocre whils live they are very good.
This isn't worth more than a 6.5
Anyone saying it is is blinded by somekind of misplaced love for current day boring Exodus.

Seeing that everyone disagrees with you just makes want to check this album.
BTW, I'm not an Exodus fan, didn't like Shovel-Headed, but quite enjoyed Exhibit A

Once again a mediocre album. Somehow all of the studio albums with Dukes on vocals are mediocre whils live they are very good.
This isn't worth more than a 6.5
Anyone saying it is is blinded by somekind of misplaced love for current day boring Exodus.

Seeing that everyone disagrees with you just makes want to check this album.
BTW, I'm not an Exodus fan, didn't like Shovel-Headed, but quite enjoyed Exhibit A

Good to see someone prefer Axhibit A over SHovel Headed, though I still think Exhibit is a bit mediocre as well. But SHovel Headed was boooooooooring and even less than mediocre.

Good to see someone prefer Axhibit A over SHovel Headed, though I still think Exhibit is a bit mediocre as well. But SHovel Headed was boooooooooring and even less than mediocre.

Indeed Exhibit A is not perfect, but Children Of A Worthless God is such a killer track! I hope they'll play it at Hllfest and not the whole Bonded By Blood album (which I just can't manage to like, even if it rightly deserve its 'classic' status)

Good to see someone prefer Axhibit A over SHovel Headed, though I still think Exhibit is a bit mediocre as well. But SHovel Headed was boooooooooring and even less than mediocre.

Indeed Exhibit A is not perfect, but Children Of A Worthless God is such a killer track! I hope they'll play it at Hllfest and not the whole Bonded By Blood album (which I just can't manage to like, even if it rightly deserve its 'classic' status)

Children of a Worthless God is a good ttrack indeed. But they SHOULD play ALL of Bonded By Blood at Hellfest. That is one of the best, if not the best, thrash album ever. And it deserves to be played in its entirety. Hell, those hooks and melodies on that album are just totally brilliant.

Children of a Worthless God is a good ttrack indeed. But they SHOULD play ALL of Bonded By Blood at Hellfest. That is one of the best, if not the best, thrash album ever. And it deserves to be played in its entirety. Hell, those hooks and melodies on that album are just totally brilliant.

While I completely agree with you, I still don't appreciate it... (don't ask me why, it's just that it never clicked for me)

JUST better than Exhibit A. Feels less boring and musically, all of them are getting better. You listen to how the guitar structures were in Tempo Of The Damned in comparison to this and the technicality difference does stand out fairly out alot.

How it started suprised me with the first riff being the ending of it's last Exhibit. There should be one more 'Exhibit' type album and then maybe change subject or something like that.

Once again a mediocre album. Somehow all of the studio albums with Dukes on vocals are mediocre whils live they are very good.
This isn't worth more than a 6.5
Anyone saying it is is blinded by somekind of misplaced love for current day boring Exodus.

I agree with you Marcel, Dukes isn't bad at all, he is a so so vocalist, I mean, live they are astonishing but, man, oh man, "Shovel Headed Kill Machine" and "Exhibit A" aren't as good as "Bonded By Blood" or "Tempo Of The Damned", yes, they have their moments, but those long songs (why? Really, why?) aren't too fitting for Exodus. With "Let There Be Blood" they shown us that their best album is still their first symphony, and live those are the songs that fit perfectly for a mosh.

Oh well, I haven't listened to this new thing, but surely it will be something like the previous one, just a couple of cool songs and a bunch of senseless long songs.

I think it's an OK album, but it's too long with too many filler tracks. I found it to be a lot more enjoyable without 'Hammer and Life', 'Class Dismissed', 'Downfall', 'March of the Sycophants' and 'Democide'. That brings it to about 45 minutes which is more than enough for a thrash album IMO. I'd give it about 65.

Great album, a few tracks are a bit longer than they should be. but still, very good.

Hmm, the only song I think is waaaay too long is The Sun Is My Destroyer. Especially that slow mid-section riff which seems to be repeated for eternity, and makes the song a lot more dull than it should be. lol The solos are awesome, especially the one by Lee Altus at the end of Beyond The Pale! <3

Overall, I just think it's waaay better than Exhibit A. There's 3 songs (not including the instrumental, and removing the acoustic outro of Good Riddance from its runtime.) under 5 minutes, when there was only 1 on Exhibit A. Much more melody, and most of the long songs dont outstay their welcome as they did on the previous album. I dunno if Id put it up there with Bonded By Blood, Pleasures Of The Flesh or even Tempo Of The Damned, but it is a great modern thrash album, and definitely the best Exodus album with Rob Dukes on vocals. xD

Great album, a few tracks are a bit longer than they should be. but still, very good.

Hmm, the only song I think is waaaay too long is The Sun Is My Destroyer. Especially that slow mid-section riff which seems to be repeated for eternity, and makes the song a lot more dull than it should be. lol The solos are awesome, especially the one by Lee Altus at the end of Beyond The Pale! <3

Overall, I just think it's waaay better than Exhibit A. There's 3 songs (not including the instrumental, and removing the acoustic outro of Good Riddance from its runtime.) under 5 minutes, when there was only 1 on Exhibit A. Much more melody, and most of the long songs dont outstay their welcome as they did on the previous album. I dunno if Id put it up there with Bonded By Blood, Pleasures Of The Flesh or even Tempo Of The Damned, but it is a great modern thrash album, and definitely the best Exodus album with Rob Dukes on vocals. xD

It seems to me that I like Devil's Teeth the most, and it's a bonus track. Good Riddance kicks ass as well. Overall I think the album is a bit too long, but true, it's quite enjoyable. I will give it time to sink in and listen to it in a few weeks.

I always laugh a little to myself when I complain about an album being too long. That's like bitching that you got TOO much music for your money haha But in this case, it actually hurts this album :/

i'll agree. generally, while i like the value, i think longer albums of the rapid/fast paced variety do have a tendency to be a bit of a test of endurance on the listener... you can get away with it in Doom or something where it's at 20% the speed of an Exodus album.

Written by SBGMetal on 23.05.2010 at 09:44Dude i totally agree Lee kicked ass with that solo!

He certainly did!

Lee's influence is more strongly felt on this album, than the other 2 he's played on with Exodus, and I think this is a major reason why I think it's their best album with him on guitars. What with this, and the latest Heathen, he's managed to be involved in 2 of the best thrash albums of the year. lol Not bad going at all! <3

Written by SBGMetal on 23.05.2010 at 09:44Dude i totally agree Lee kicked ass with that solo!

He certainly did!

Lee's influence is more strongly felt on this album, than the other 2 he's played on with Exodus, and I think this is a major reason why I think it's their best album with him on guitars. What with this, and the latest Heathen, he's managed to be involved in 2 of the best thrash albums of the year. lol Not bad going at all! <3

This album has some good tracks, but the main problem here is that this album is just way too long. For me, Exodus don't really do seventy-odd minute albums well. Maybe they should have stuck to the length of their first few albums:P

This is definitely their best since tempo. The slow boring parts of shkm and exhibit a are mostly gone, and Dukes has really come into his own on this (though he's still getting called 'the new guy' after 7 years). the length isn't really an issue for me, but if they could have cut out 10 or 15 minutes of the less interesting bits, it would have been better.

This is an absolute BEAST of an album. incredible vocals, perfect drumming and the riffs are out of this world. i have thought a lot about the quality of this album and i have to give it a 10 even though they should have shaved off 5 minutes from it.